The Right Person - General Mark Milley - 21st Century Defender of the United States

     

Throughout the Trump presidency, I often wondered if there would be ANYBODY who served in his administration that could eventually be praised for their service at that time. Someone who put the nation above the personality holding the title of president.

There was...and still is. General Mark A. Milley.

Donald Trump’s effort to upend the 2020 election based on his lie is being called “aiming a nuclear weapon at the United States of America’ and Jeffrey Clark, the writer of the Department of Justice letter challenging the Georgia election results should face serious decades-long consequences for promoting Trump’s lie as factual and giving it a veneer of believability. It was an act of sedition. One journalist wrote that “we can’t take this continuous historic scandal for granted just because he [Trump] says it out loud all the time. These are [beyond] Watergate-level accusations.” Trump tried to use the Department of Justice to overthrow a free and fair election for his ego, democracy be damned.

Donald Trump assaulted the country. That can’t be ignored or swept under the rug. General Milley immediately took steps to protect the rest of the nation and the world from the mob-like impulses Trump was displaying hourly. Trump was in the wrong. I stand with Gen. Milley 100%. He served the nation in a time of Peril, as Bob Woodward and Jim Acosta's book title suggests.  

Trump sycophants are claiming Gen. Milley should be removed because he went behind Trump’s back to save the country from him, and that wasn’t fair to do to Trump. They claim Milley simply assumed Trump might do something unconstitutional, and he shouldn’t have the power to make that assessment even if he was the head of the Joint Chiefs. We don’t know that Trump would have launched a war but it’s crazy to assume he would, despite what Gen. Milley and many others say. So, to protect Trump’s damaged ego, his GOP suck-ups want Milley removed...dishonorably if possible...so Trump looks better in comparison. That’s all this is, an attempt to burnish Trump’s horrible reputation and to one-up those military know-it-alls who oppose Trump.

January 6th was Trump’s revenge against America for rejecting him at the polls. It’s a sore loser on steroids.

Thanks to Trump, his fanatics demand the right to believe what they want when they want and too bad if others don’t like it. Trump has moved us into a post-truth world which makes it extremely dangerous when we can no longer count on facts, truth, and honesty regarding everyday interactions. It will only get worse as time progresses. (For example: if people no longer fully accept that a red traffic light or sign means stop, intersections will become free-for-all kill zones. Or, if they assert and use Monopoly money as genuine currency, the banking industry will grind to a halt.) 

Law professor Lawrence Tribe hits the nail on the head when he stated that if Trump is not investigated for his role in trying to overturn a free and fair election, then the rule of law means nothing. Donald Trump would be allowed to do whatever he wants and never face any consequences. So, why even have laws against that if Trump and any future president commit them only to be given a pass every time? That is what Trump is hoping for.

It must be remembered, despite what Trump and his sycophants complain about now, Gen. Milley never went rogue. Trump went rogue and Milley had to protect the nation from HIM! Milley “stayed in his lane” the entire time he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. China had expressed concerns through backchannels that Trump’s rhetoric indicated he might strike in order to retain power. That’s what prompted Milley’s call. Trump was considered “crazy” even by his own staff. Pence had to call for military help during the riot. Trump was too busy enjoying watching it on TV at the White House. 

Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa confirms Milley saved the country from Trump-induced wars. Trump tried right after he knew he’d lost the election and then again just before Christmas. In both cases, Milley had to overpower Trump in some fashion, and Trump quickly backed down (as bullies do when their fake machismo is confronted) to prevent Trump from making arbitrary initial moves that would lead to war. It was a typical Trump deflection move to "get the heat" off of him interfering in the election. 

Milley and Pelosi agreed right after January 6 that Trump should not be able to do any “commander-in-chief" stuff in his remaining two weeks in office after assaulting his own government. 

It is imperative that Trump never, ever get close to the reins of power again. The military will insist in no uncertain terms there must be no re-election of Trump. 

Even the Chinese were concerned Trump would start a war with them in order to stay in power. Sure, an out-of-focus scenario could be invented that Gen. Milley "oversaw Trump" the last two weeks of his administration (meaning they are claiming a marginal military coup was carried out) by making sure he (Milley) was included in any chain of command orders, issuances, or directives. Milley wasn’t in command, but Trump sure wasn’t left in charge of anything, not even the drinks cabinet. The US ran on auto-pilot until Biden was sworn in. Pence never knew, which is just as well. 

If General Mark Milley is charged with treason, I support his decisions that lead Trump and his supporters to make such an unjust accusation. He did it to save the US from Trump who was going far outside the Constitution, the law, and his oath of office. Milley recognized the authoritarian despot in Donald Trump and stopped him from maintaining his grip on power. Milley should be rewarded for his silent defense of the country when virtually no one else would. 

It won’t happen right away, but historically, General Mark A. Milley will be ranked with Generals Grant, Sherman, Bradley, and Eisenhower, as men who defended the nation (and the Constitution) in an almost inconceivable situation. Milley recognized the danger of Donald Trump just as Grant and Sherman recognized and defeated Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Bradley and Eisenhower combined their talents to defeat Adolf Hitler. Milley did more from his position, one of the very few Trump couldn’t challenge, than the entire GOP, former Cabinet members, and Trump’s administration. He did it with no one watching and he did not bring attention to it. He saw the danger and acted stealthily and quickly. He should be accorded the nation’s highest award for that.   

And weird as this seems, Gen. Milley will not want to be remembered as the General who saved the nation from a violent domestic terrorist. I would imagine that carries little weight to a military officer who has faced live fire from a smart and well-equipped enemy. He will see what he did as the only thing anyone in his position could do. He will claim it deserves no special attention...when it absolutely DOES merit extraordinary attention - for protecting the nation from something completely unexpected. Something no one could have planned for. General Milley was the right person in the right place at the right time. He has earned numerous Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts for the grenades he threw himself on during his tenure as Joint Chiefs...and survived them all. Unlike Generals Joe Dunford Jr.,  John Kelly, and James Mattis, he survived Trump.

        There is considerable joking about the similarities between Hitler and Trump but as one late-night comedian pointed out - it is wrong to compare the two because "Hitler never lived off of an inheritance and he actually DID write a book." If the juxtaposing of Hitler and Trump continues; for example, Gen. Milley’s concern that Trump was becoming Hitler, and John Kelly acknowledging that Trump said positive things about Hitler, my hope is that Trump ends the same way Hitler did - only without dragging the entire nation down with him. Leave him alone in an underground bunker with a loaded pistol and a cyanide capsule.  

People forget Donald Trump is not sending us his best...

        At a recent congressional hearing, Gen. Mark Milley again proved he is one of democracy's greatest unseen defenders when he challenged bigots like Matt Gaetz who attempted to call the US military “woke” because the military thinks it is important to tell the full story about the formation of America, not just the white-only stories. [Because the people that make up the military come from all parts of America, not just the white-only parts.] General Mark Milley has the right to kick Tucker Carlson in the balls after Carlson called him a ‘pig’ and stupid because Milley thinks learning is a good thing for the American military. Fox hosts always show they are fully committed to being un-American and keeping viewers ignorant. 

    But there is a black mark.

General Qasem Soleimani

       My overall opinion on Gen. Milley is tempered because, while I support him and recognize he defended the nation against Trump’s worst impulses after the 2020 summer protests, Milley was responsible for Donald Trump committing the most egregious violation ever of our UN Charter agreement by targeting Gen. Qasem Soleimani in early January 2020, an act of war against a nation with whom we were not at war. An act that also killed 6 innocent Iraqis and 4 Iranians, injured 109 US service members in the ensuing retaliation and led to the collateral deaths of 176 people aboard a Ukrainian airliner. Milley was behind urging Donald Trump to kill Soleimani - who simplistically saw it as the perfect deflection from his Impeachment hearings. When Milley could see how dangerous and lawless Trump was, it was stupid and unpardonable, even if it was just one of several options offered. It should NEVER have been included. IT WAS WRONG!

    General Milley was coup-aware. He will face continued scrutiny for why he didn’t say anything publicly regarding his concerns about the dangers posed by Trump, but he had made it clear that the military was going to remain apolitical and avoid anything that appeared to violate that oath. Milley made sure the military would NOT be available to Trump for ‘help’ with the election. Gen. Milley saved our Constitutional Republic by refusing to allow Trump to drag the U.S. into a fascist direction. He did not raise any red flags because he didn’t want to give the MAGA mob reason to think the military was now "in on the game" to oust the president...since at that point Trump was claiming the election was rigged, the Deep State was out to get him, China released the virus to hurt him and help Biden, the only way he could lose is if the election was stolen...etc. 

    General Milley understood the dumb f*ckery Donald Trump was up to. For probably the only time in his life, someone stood up to Trump and he didn't know how to take it. The GOP is upset because Milley stopped Trump's slow-moving coup. That's what THEY can't forgive.